Who’s hot? Who’s not? The bulls and bears are everywhere this week in our ESDBS Mad Money review.


“Trojans are still very popular amongst college students. I say buy more!”

Stranko’s Buys:

Alabama: I know Shula is still the coach, but I didn’t think they were going to sniff the top 25 this year. Even if they lose this weekend, they’ve exceeded my expectations.

Michigan State: They make the buy list again as they their offense continues to roll. Drew Stanton is for real.

Texas Tech: With great reluctance and trepidation I’m high on the Red Raiders. I can’t believe that 4 weeks into a college football season they haven’t played anyone yet. It is a shame… but still you can’t ignore those kinds of week in week out offensive numbers even if they are against the Sisters of the Poor.

Orson’s Buys

USC. Why the hell not? They’ve erased anyone they’ve played, and contrary to what Wojeichkwiexk…that guy wrote the other day, the game against Oregon didn’t mean jack shit in terms of foreboding dynastic collapse. Reggie Bush is it–everyone else is just playing tag. Now watch ASU beat their ass this week and take our pundit Q rating into subterranean territory.

Texas Bound to go up this week after a thrashing of Missouri, though the dueling run qbs storyline with Brad Smith should be fun to watch for a quarter or two. The real difference between this team and other past Texas teams is the defense, which has been a lot less bend and a lot more break this year–as in breaking testicles and jaws.

Penn State 4-0 and going into a matchup in Happy Valley with a team of green bananas just waiting to go rotten. Purdue was the first bankable letdown team to go bad last weekend against Minnesota; this time it’ll be the Nittany Lions returning the favor to the other rock-solid annual disappointment, Minnesota. JoePa will be 5-0 and bowl eligible–feel the warm fuzzies if you can’t remember the old bastard’s teams pounding on yours in their prime. We’re talking to you, Georgia and Miami fans.

Stranko’s Sells:

Louisville: Boy was I wrong last week. Their performance against USF was the equivalent of some kind of accounting fraud sending their stock spiralling down. We’ll see if the fundamentals are strong enough for their stock to rebound.

Iowa: In college football you can always explain away a devastating loss to an in-state rival… especially early in the season. Following that, we rightly punished them in our poll, but always with the expectation that Ferentz would right the ship. Well, that ship is sinking and it is time for the rats to bail.

Purdue: A favorable schedule can only do so much. You still have to beat those second tier opponents if you want to make a run at a BCS game.

Orson’s sells.

LSU. Losing a game like that will destroy a team’s psyche for a whole season.
Why they don’t give the ball to nightmare Joseph Addai is beyond us. A horrible display when it counted for a team that looked horribly undisciplined.

Nebraska Undefeated against cake meets Iowa State, a team that had herculean struggles in beating Army at West Point. That was a tougher game than this one will be for the Cyclones, who’ll embarrass Genius Coach Bill Callahan in front of the increasingly-less-faithful in Lincoln. Looking forward to Callahan smirking at his players following the third pick of the day on third and short.

Bill Callahan rehearses his musical number for his future job doing dinner theater in Branson.

Michigan Sorry, Brian. Sorry, Joey. Carr-tastrophe ‘05 has begun in earnest, and we’re not touching that offense with a ten foot pole. Norm Chow. Norm Chow. Norm Chow.

Stranko’s Holds:

Notre Dame: Rebounded well from their loss to MSU. I also think I saw them throw deep… which many doubted they could. They still look like they’ll be steamrolled by USC, but they are set for a solid season nontheless.

Cal: I’m waiting to see them against a good opponent to see what Ayoob and the running game can do. They look pretty good, but I want more proof.

Florida: Leak is starting to understand that things open up in the running and passing game when he calls his own number on the option from time to time. It was a dominating performance by the first teamers… but they are only a hold because it was against Kentucky.

Southern Cal: Best team in the country. Everyone should own them in their college football portfolio.

Orson’s Holds:

Texas Tech. A wrist-slap for brazen cupcakery in their scheduling. Kansas, though, can’t be avoided, so we can’t penalize them for that. And yes, Mark Mangino is acutally thinking about cupcakes right now.

Tennessee The random setting on Randy Sanders’ play-o-matic continues to confound not only opponents, but Tennessee players, as well, who sometimes seem stunned at the play-calls, judging from the six drops Vol receiver tallied on Monday night. Clausen can’t stretch the field, but toward the end they got simple stupid and won the game with Riggs. They’ll kill Commando Ed and Ole Miss, but this is still a team with issues.

Arizona State. This weekend, it’s just history and Reggie Bush against you, y’all. Good luck!

Buenas suerte!